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Sand treatment processes are large consumers of electrical energy in many green sand mould-casting foundries. Only smelting plants use more energy. As a result of energy management policies in accordance with ISO 50001, the focus is on reducing energy consumption.

If the old motors are not to be replaced with energy-efficient ones at great expense, the only other solution is reducing idling phases. Observing idling phases more closely reveals phases of several minutes in which no sand is being transported in the individual plant components.

It is precisely in these phases that savings potentials can be unleashed by switching off these plant components. An intelligent querying function of the operating conditions at the moulding plant is always of primary importance, as this determines the sand requirement and sand output. While taking account of the various bunker fill levels, transport requirements can be determined at an early stage. Downtime at the moulding plant can therefore be planned in advance to avoid delays in production.

Depending on evaluation requirements, energy meters in the plant should be distributed in order to measure the actual consumption. The actual savings effects then become apparent in the ongoing evaluation by correlating total sand consumption and total energy consumption. If these values are continuously logged in a database at suitable intervals, comparative evaluations can also take place over longer time periods.

The method of implementation of the economy mode is part of the PLC control system which controls all actuators. The implementation of the required software makes sense if currently converting from an old to a new PLC system.

The high quality of your moulding material is the benchmark for our skill level – and we know what we’re doing with measurements!

For 25 years now, moisture measurement has been part of datec – Dosier- und Automationstechnik GmbH’s comprehensive portfolio. Specialising in moulding material technology for foundries, the company offers both scientifically and technically diverse solutions to increase moulding sand quality in individual plants. These include:

PLC-based moisture measurement integrated into the ethernet: Using a self-cleaning electrode, the moisture in the moulding sand at various points in the sand’s circuit is measured and transmitted to the network via an ethernet connection. The real-time measurements are visualised in a user-appropriate manner, permitting good levels of monitoring of the moulding sand quality.

Automatic water dosing: Before the mixer or the cooler, a pre-measurement takes place on the input conveyor to enable the rapid addition of water. At one of the moisture measurement points positioned in the control loop in the mixer and the cooler, the moisture in the moulding material is measured once again and if necessary corrected to the target moisture level. Very stable values for sand moisture can therefore be achieved and can be monitored via the ethernet.

Moulding sand inspection system Rotocontrol RTC 107: The fully automated moulding sand inspection system Rotocontrol RTC 107 measures the compactibility and compressive strength of the sand in the circuit during the mixing cycle. The continuous data capture and transfer to the network via ethernet sheds light on the quality of the moulding sand.

The combination of the different measurement and regulation settings allows the sand to be fully monitored and controlled during the moulding material circuit. In this way, datec makes a significant contribution to reducing waste and therefore enables your production operation to become more efficient.